Product Ratings for Shopping Ads & Free Listings
Google can show star ratings annotations on Shopping Ads and Free Listings for products offered by eligible advertisers - officially referred to as Product Ratings. Both the product and advertiser must meet certain requirements to be eligible. Find out more below:
Product has to have reviews. Reviews can be from any retailer that sells this same product (Google leans on the GTIN value in the feed to aggregate across all retailers). Let’s assume Website A ...
Read more Google Product Search Seller Ratings Google Product Extensions Google Shopping
Feed Driven Product Ads for Groceries
With digital grocery sales on the rise (predicted to account for 20% of all grocery sales by 2026), retailers need to ensure they are keeping up. Google and Meta both offer support for product feed/catalog driven ads that not only help drive more traffic to grocers’ websites but can also help to promote delivery and store pick up/drive to store as well. According to Google, 37% of grocery shoppers said they used a ...
Read more Google Product Search Meta Product Listing Ads Google Shopping Local Inventory Ads Social Media
Price Drop Badge/Annotation on Google
There are many ways Google highlights products when their prices change - specifically lower. The Sale badge and Special Offer annotation (aka Merchant Promotion) do a great job showcasing temporary price cuts on items but there’s another badge that can show up to alert consumers of a good deal.
A Price Drop badge will show on the image and in the price section of the PLA, Google will explain what the drop is. Google’s ...
Read more Google Product Search Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Supporting Customer Retention with PLA
With inflation top-of-mind for both merchants and customers, maintaining a loyal base of customers is more crucial than ever in the ecommerce space. Loyalty, however, does not mean you still won’t have to fight to keep those customers.
Here are a few tips for highlighting the areas that keep shoppers coming back to your digital storefront:
Advertise Free Shipping
Ease and speed of delivery are often the deciding factor for consumers overwhelmed with options ...
Read more Seller Ratings Google Product Extensions Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Google's Trusted Store Badge
Earning the Coveted Blue Checkmark
Although competition for PLA real estate continues to heat up, there are several small but significant additions that merchants can make to their Google Shopping program to help gain an edge on a crowded SERP.
One of these is Google’s “Trusted Store Badge.” This badge appears to the end user similar to the blue check marks already popular on social media platforms. Trusted stores are highlighted on Google Free ...
Read more Seller Ratings Google Product Listing Ads Google Shopping Google Shopping Actions
Leveraging Your Product Feed for PMax Success
With the roll-out of Google’s automatic migration from Smart Shopping to Performance Max Campaigns, traditional PLA is now just one of many forms that your product listings can take across Google properties. For example, PMax campaigns will place products in front of potential customers who may not be actively searching for a specific item using formats like Display and Discover Ads.
The addition of a few key product attributes in your feed can give ...
Read more Google Product Titles Best Practices Google Shopping
Google Hosted Local Storefront : LIA
Google has been steering advertisers for years now towards the Merchant Hosted Local Storefront, even providing them with 2 options - Basic and Full. Here, we will be covering details around the rarely talked about Google Hosted Local Storefront (GHLSF) . While these are uncommon in today’s SERP, the reality is that there are many advertisers who could likely benefit from this. These are advertisers that can’t meet Google’s requirements even for the “Basic ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Product Listing Ads Google Shopping Local Inventory Ads
Google Merchant Promotions for Local Inventory Ads
With Google’s Local Promotions moving from beta to a full-fledged feature, merchants running Local Inventory Ads now have the option to display promotions that are redeemable either online, in store, or both.
Local promotions may be submitted either manually in Google Merchant Center or via a Google Sheets local promotions feed template that is easy to fill in with your promotion details. Once the Google sheet is updated, you can upload to the GMC ...
Google Manufacturer Center :: Part 2
Google gives manufacturers control of how their products are presented across Google through the Manufacturer Center. Product content can be pulled over from the Google Merchant Center or a feed can be uploaded directly to the Manufacturer Center. The GTIN attribute is used to match products across retailer’s Merchant Center feeds. If a brand is participating in sending content to the Manufacturer Center, Google will utilize this GTIN’s content, for certain placements like ...
Google Manufacturer Center :: Part 1
Google's Manufacturer Center is another tool to help brands improve the shopping experience for its products across the Google properties. There are 2 main purposes for using Manufacturer Center:
1Gain insight into your products' aggregated performance across all of Google - Impression and click data (and more) from your efforts and your resellers at the product level.2Control of product content in certain shopping experiences on Google (covered in Part 2)This blog (Part 1 ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
New Discovery Campaigns Use Product Feeds
While Discovery Ads on Google isn’t technically a new concept, the ability to leverage your product feed to tailor these ads around products is. Here’s a quick overview of what Discovery Campaigns are about:
Ads can show across multiple Google Properties in places where consumers would be browsing their favorite content:YouTube Home and Watch Next feedsThe Google Discover feedGmail Promotions and Social tabsThis campaign would align more closely with display as the ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices Google Shopping
Regional Availability and Pricing (RAAP) for Grocery Chains on Google Shopping
In response to a growing demand for convenient online shopping, grocery stores are rapidly adapting to increase their digital presence and expand order fulfillment options.
With the introduction of Regional Availability and Pricing (RAAP) last year, Google has made regional inventory and price information independent from physical storefronts, focusing on an entirely online end-to-end shopping experience. This feature is available across the Google Shopping network in both paid and free organic shopping listings, allowing merchants ...
Read more Google Product Search Product Listing Ads Google Shopping Local Inventory Ads
Shopping Feed Tips for a Smooth Holiday Season
Many things go into preparing for the busy holiday season. Planning budgets for big days, sometimes down to the hour, can be time intensive but can have a large pay off. Reviewing bidding strategies to make sure automation will adjust properly on high volume days will be a headache but is a must. When it comes to preparations involving your programs that leverage a product feed, rest assured that VersaFeed is at your disposal throughout ...
Read more Google Product Search Meta Bing Shopping Best Practices Product Listing Ads
Getting the Most out of Social Shopping Feeds
As shoppable ads continue to grow their share of social media ad space it is becoming increasingly important for marketers to ensure that their product feeds are fully optimized specifically for social media ad platforms.
Meta has led the charge integrating shoppable content into social ad campaigns, and their Commerce Manager remains the standard for most social media shopping ads platforms. With Meta’s feed recommendations in mind, here’s a handy list of some ...
Google Gets Smart With Titles
Google has quietly introduced a new "enhancement" to Shopping ad titles, referred to in their [title] attribute documentation as Optimized titles.
Google will dynamically prepend product features or attributes to the front of your PLA title using values from the product feed that offer the best match to the customer’s search query, separating these attributes from the product title with hyphens.
A real life example of this new feature in action can be found ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Product Titles Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
What Happend to CSE's?
For those of us that were online shopping prior to 2013, sites like PriceGrabber.com, Nextag.com, Shopping.com and ShopZilla.com were a big deal. They were the destination for finding the best price for a product you wanted to buy online. Digital advertisers would diligently send data feeds to each of these big players, including "Froogle" (which was Google's Free Listings) and manage their unique account logins, bidding, etc.
May 31, 2012 ...
Read more Google Product Search PPC Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Data Feed Considerations When Replatforming
Over our 16 years in business building data feeds for retail clients, we've experienced quite a number of ecommerce replatforms. Our #1 recommendation on this is to plan for problems. There's always going to be something that comes up but hopefully with preparation and awareness, it will be minimal. Here are things we've observed over the years to help you stay ahead:
Losing Google Merchant Center Site Verification & Claim: Make sure your ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices AdWords Product Listing Ads Knowledge Base Google Shopping
Solutions for Availability Restrictions
The steps below can solve for the situations where:
The ability to ship a product depends upon the location of the shipping address (referred to as ‘Region’).The price of a product is consistent across all locations and does not change, no matter where the user is located. For any regional pricing situations, the full Regional Availability and Pricing (RAAP) solution is needed.
How to Tell Google What Areas You Do Not Ship to Within ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Inaccurate Availability Warnings for Regional Shipping Limitations
Websites selling items that limit shipping based on location alone will have another hoop they will need to know how to jump through to advertise with Google Shopping ads. A common example of this is any website selling alcohol that can be shipped. With so many various delivery/shipping restrictions on alcohol at the state level and lower, Google Merchant Center needs to be told what areas are off limits (no shipping allowed). Google Merchant ...
Read more Google Product Search Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Preparing for Planned Site Outages
From time-to-time websites need to come offline for maintenance. There's no way of telling Google about this so when they perform their regular checks of your data feed against your site, it sets off a wave of events that can include product disapprovals. So in addition to temporarily pausing your ad campaigns to avoid paying for clicks to a dead site, there is also a step that needs to be taken within your product ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Google's New Deals Feature
Within the Shopping tab, Google has launched a new feature allowing shoppers to quickly filter out the best product deals of the day. There are a few ways to get there and a few key differences to expect.
What Does it Look Like and How to Find it When an applicable search query such as "deals", "sales", "promotions", "Black Friday", etc occurs on the Shopping tab, Google is prompted to redirect to this new Deals ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Merchant Promotion vs Sale Price Annotations / Badge
Google steadily introduces enhancements to Shopping ads and before you can execute, you have to know how to choose the right approach. When product prices are discounted during a sale, there are 2 common options that websites will utilize to communicate the price cut. Taking a look at the product landing page can typically clue you in on what to do next to ensure that your ads effectively promote this offer.
Discount Shown on Landing ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices Product Extensions Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
How to Set Up a Google Merchant Promotion
Check EligibilityGoogle Merchant Promotions are only applicable to use in certain situations. See the comprehensive list of Promotion Policies
Quick Points:
Coupon codes are ONLY REQUIRED for Free/Discount Shipping offers. Google does NOT require them for % off on merchandise. HOWEVER, if they are needed to make the promo function properly on the site, then they should be submitted with the promo details.The promo should offer an ADDED benefit. Google Shopping policies state that ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Product Listing Ads Google Shopping Client Account
Google Feed Specification 2020 Updates
Each year Google updates their Google Merchant Center (GMC) feed specification with modest changes to how merchants should submit their product data. This year is no different and Google has just announced the changes as follows:
Changes available now:Two new attributes are now available to submit:
product_highlight and product_detail. These attributes let you submit additional product data to Google in a generic fashion. product_highlight allows you to submit bulleted lists of product highlights. product_detail ...
Read more Google Product Search Google Best Practices Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Facebook Shops Analysis
Key: FB/IG = Facebook/Instagram
(Note: Facebook Shops is rapidly changing, this information is accurate as of early June 2020)
Facebook Shops was announced on May 19th, 2020 and it immediately generated significant buzz. However, there are many questions on features, required integration efforts, and how much revenue it will ultimately generate for businesses.
What is it?Facebook is enhancing how merchants can list inventory on their FB/IG business 'homepage'. Through a new "Shops ...
Free Product Listings on Google Shopping
Google recently announced that they now offer an option for Free Product Listings on Google Shopping. This change went into effect in the US at the end of April with an expected Global rollout by the end of the year.
What does this mean? Some of the digital real estate on the Google Shopping tab is now free through the “Surfaces across Google” program in the Merchant Center.
What does it NOT mean? That Google ...
Read more PPC On a Budget Google Best Practices Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Structured Data Help for Google Price/Availability Suspensions
Part 2 of our Google Merchant Center inaccurate price/availability suspension warning screencast series. Here we cover the gory details of what Google expects your structured data to look like, including examples with variants (size/color variations that may be priced differently).
Links referenced in the video:
Part 1: Google Suspension Warnings for Price/Availability
GMC Structured Data OverviewGMC and Schema.org Attributes ExplainedGoogle Structured Data Testing Tool
Read more Best Practices Knowledge Base Google Shopping Screencast
Google Suspension Warnings for Price/Availability
This video discusses Google Merchant Center suspension warnings for price and/or availability violations. John reviews the various parts of your website and data feed to help merchants understand what the real issues are and how to fix.
Part 2: Structured Data Help for Google Price/Availability Suspensions
Read more Best Practices Knowledge Base Google Shopping Screencast
Timed Feed Modifications
VersaFeed is excited to announce the release of a highly anticipated new feature: Timed Feed Modifications. This new feature allows users to schedule complex feed changes anytime in the future without manual oversight.
Need to setup promotions or launch new products at midnight on Saturday? With feed mods, changes can be setup in advance ensuring a better night's sleep for marketing and technical teams!
Setup1Create/edit the desired feed modification.2In the Schedule section ...
VersaFeed PriceWatch
OverviewVersaFeed PriceWatch monitors your product prices compared to other vendors on the web. Using this information, PriceWatch enables clients to adjust their advertising strategies accordingly.
Have the lowest price on a popular product? Use PriceWatch to increase bids to maximize exposure. Alternatively, is a product not priced competitively? Use PriceWatch to remove products or lower bids to save costs.
TechnicalPriceWatch monitors pricing over 24 hour periods and enables merchants to use this data in two ...
Read more PPC Bidding PPC Google AdWords Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
VersaFeed Image IQ
Image IQ is a VersaFeed technology that modifies merchant images to be more customer engaging and channel compliant. By ensuring your products have the best possible images, merchants can drive more clicks and sales.
Image IQ primarily works on three common image problems:
1 Backgrounds Merchant images are often shot with grey or beige backdrops and/or lifestyle elements. However, most advertising channels (Google Shopping included) need images to have white or transparent backgrounds.
To ...
Detailed Change History Tracking
VersaFeed’s new Change History feature allows users to quickly and easily search for changes made to an account: see which login made a change, when it was made, and exactly what was changed. This powerful feature allows users to efficiently investigate deviations in the feeds and effectively answer the questions of why and how:
Did the item count increase/decrease due to a change in the source date or because an exclusion rule was ...
Advanced Source Feed Configuration and Scheduling
VersaFeed's new source feed config tools enable users to control source feed import settings and schedules at a granular level. You will find this area by navigating to Products > Import Settings.
Import SettingsThis tab handles configuration of where to access source files (FTP, SFTP, HTTP, etc.) and what type of file to expect (CSV/TSV/XML). It allows for multi-file imports, specifying file name patterns, download retries, and error checking (e.g., when to ...
Drag, Drop, and Sort VersaFeed Columns
VersaFeed's web dashboard now allows users to drag, drop, and sort columns directly in the UI.
Drag and drop column headers:
Sort ascending and descending:
Combined with a wealth of other VersaFeed features, the new drag/drop/sort enables users to effectively stay on the Versa website and avoid moving data in/out of spreadsheets.
Drag/drop/sort functionality is available for all VersaFeed users today.
Merchant Integration with Buy on Google
In addition to the steps VersaFeed must take (previous article), merchants must also undertake action to integrate with Buy on Google. Merchants will need to:
Receive new orders from Buy on Google listingsConfirm back to Google once an order has been shippedProcess the so-called "unhappy" path (returns and cancellations)There are three primary ways for clients to accomplish these tasks:
1 Utilize Google Merchant Center (GMC) to manually manage the entire process.GMC enables customer ...
Read more Google AdWords Google Checkout Google My Business Marketplaces Google Shopping Actions
VersaFeed Integration with Buy on Google
VersaFeed supports Buy on Google in several ways. VersaFeed will optimize and tune your product feed -- taking your standard Google Merchant Center feed and getting it ready for Buy on Google listings. The product feed is the primary method of sending product information to Google and is therefore critical to a successful Buy on Google rollout.
VersaFeed does the following to prepare a merchant for Buy on Google:1Begin to increase the frequency of product ...
Read more Google AdWords Google Checkout Google My Business Marketplaces Google Shopping Actions
Buy on Google Overview
Buy on Google (formerly "Google Shopping Actions" and "Google Express") is generally considered Google's platform to compete with Amazon. It's a marketplace system where customers find products, checkout, and pay on Google.com--never visiting the merchant’s website directly. Consumers can find products on Google web properties (most notably search) as well as Google Assistant (using their voice on an Android phone or Google Home speaker). There are hints that Google will also ...
Read more Google Google Checkout Google My Business Marketplaces Google Shopping Actions
Marketplace Support for VersaFeed Clients
VersaFeed is pleased to announce support for marketplaces through three new vendor partnerships. These partnerships enable VersaFeed clients to participate in marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
VersaFeed scoured the web looking for best-in-class partners: we reviewed forums, blogs, industry newsletters, and even spoke with senior leadership at many marketplace vendors. The three marketplace partners below are the best in a huge field of contenders.
(VersaFeed receives no compensation or referrals from these vendors, they were ...
VersaFeed & Google Local Inventory Ads
Google Local Inventory Ads ("LIA") show ads on Google to potential customers who may be interested in purchasing items from nearby physical store locations. If your retail business does significant in-store transactions and/or has many brick and mortar locations, LIA could be used to drive increased foot traffic to stores and a very important revenue stream.
LIA has existed since 2014 and has grown significantly since then. Google continues to add features to LIA ...
Read more Google Google Shopping Google My Business Local Inventory Ads
Setting up Google Ads KPI Integration
This article provides technical details on how to add Google Ads KPI's to your VersaFeed account (an overview of the feature in general can be found here).
Please click here to login and read the full article.
Not a current client or agency? Contact VersaFeed today to see how we can help with your Google product feed.
Read more Best Practices AdWords Knowledge Base Google Shopping Client Account
Google Ads KPI Integration with VersaFeed
VersaFeed's FeedBack system now integrates Google Shopping campaign key performance indicators (KPIs) like ROAS, Revenue, Cost, and other metrics. Using these KPIs, VersaFeed clients can create Custom Labels, view reports, and generally integrate advanced performance-based logic into their Google Shopping campaign strategies.
Please click here to login and read the full article.
Not a current client or agency? Contact VersaFeed today to see how we can help with your Google product feed.
Read more Best Practices AdWords Knowledge Base Google Shopping Client Account
Simpler "Is Brand in Title" Dynamic Attribute Comparisons
Today, VersaFeed launches a simpler way to check dynamic product attributes for feed searches and modification/exclusion rule interfaces.
Searches like "is Brand in Title" or "is MPN in the Description" have always been available in VersaFeed — but today they become much easier to implement with Dynamic Attribute Comparisons.
Dynamic Attribute Comparisons can be utilized with any feed search, feed modification, or exclusion rule. When creating these filters and rules, simply click the down arrow ...
New Feed Destination: To Dupe, Or Not To Dupe?
When delivering a product feed to a new destination VersaFeed clients have two options:
(A)Create a "dupe" feed. — This is not actually creating another feed within the VersaFeed system, but simply sending an already existing feed to another destination. This is done by adding "Secondary Destinations" within the "Feed Settings" config.(B)Create a new feed. — Actually have the VersaFeed team create a new full-fledged feed. The new feed can be modeled to be ...
Importing Additional Product Data with Supplemental Files
When creating optimized product feeds you will often receive additional "supplemental" file data in Excel or CSV that is separate from your product source feed. This supplemental data might contain GTINs, optimized titles, cost-of-goods data — anything really.
VersaFeed's Supplemental Files feature allows users to seamlessly import the new data and integrate it into your product feeds. The supplemental file might be a one-time file that will not change. Or, it might be data hosted ...
Read more PPC Bidding Product Titles Knowledge Base Client Account
View FTP/SFTP Activity in VersaFeed Dashboard
VersaFeed's new FTP and SFTP activity monitor enables clients and agencies to easily view details and history on file transfers to and from ftp.versafeed.com. This allows users to answer questions like:
When does the daily source feed arrive and what is its name?Is the daily (or hourly) source feed arriving consistently?Was a file actually sent to VersaFeed and how big was that file?What is the IP address that is ...
Additional Compare Tools for Data Feed Differences
VersaFeed has expanded on its already existing feed "Compare" feature (previously described here).
When you select the "Compare imports" option, you're telling VersaFeed that you want to see the differences between feeds created at two different times. To enable this tool, first click "Options" and then the "Compare imports" checkbox in the Options pane.
5 main areas of the "Compare" feature:
1.Select which imports to compare — Select the two different dates from the ...
Search Previous or Next Feed Rapidly
Users can now quickly execute the same feed search on a previous or future data feed import. In the example below, we are searching a source product feed for Nike products on 4/13/18. Frequently, we'll want to execute the same search on the previous day, or the next day. This can now be done by clicking the up or down arrows next to the date:
Up arrow — same search on the next ...
Search "Any Field" in Data Feeds
VersaFeed now provides clients an option to search "Any Field" in both source product feed searches and output product feed searches like Google, Facebook, Criteo, and others.
For example, if a company has a product code "NK653" and wants more information on this product, it's hard to know if that is a SKU, MPN, Style ID, or other attribute. Searching using VersaFeed's "Any Field" method enables you to find this product easily. Here ...
New Features on Data Feeds Page
We've recently released an update to the Data Feeds & Imports page which provides a host of new functionality and display features. By adding the new features below, it is our goal to add more transparency, allow clients to understand and react to various issues, and accommodate faster iterations for testing and publishing changes to the output feeds. Let's go through each of them:
Create New FeedClients now have the ability to recreate a ...
Using FeedBackSM to Chart, Diagnose, and Fix Google Data Feeds
VersaFeed has released a powerful new feature called FeedBack, which enables merchants to see detailed information on the health and status of their data feed. FeedBack will appear as a new top-level menu item in the client accounts and can be launched by navigating to FeedBack > Google.
FeedBack charts various issues and metrics in your Merchant Center feed and AdWords account over the last 30 days. In the upper right, you can click "60" or ...
Read more Google Knowledge Base Google Shopping Client Account
New Product Searches: Raw & Processed
While clients have always been able to search their outgoing feeds, VersaFeed has recently introduced Product searches. There are two types of Product searches: Raw Input, Processed Data
Raw Input DataThis is searching the actual source data before it runs through the VersaFeed system. The filter fields and viewable columns will be based on the source input feed the client provides. The header rows in the search results display the mapping of which internal VF ...
Product & Feed Search: New Options Available
VersaFeed's search interfaces have been significantly revamped with a host of new features and powerful tools, including:
Updated filtersField mappingsCompare importsSummary reportCompare-Summary report
Updated FiltersThe search filters have been modernized with many new match types and input options. Unlimited filters and filter sub-groups can be added to make complex selections. Here's more info about the New Search Filters.
Field MappingsThe new search results' header includes a mapping of where the data is coming ...
New Search Filters
A new filter interface has been released for the product and feed searches in the client account. The search results start out the same as before, returning all products, then criteria can be applied to filter the products down to extremely granular levels. Here is an overview of the new filters:
a New filter paneThe filters now work the same as the product selections on the various rules pages (e.g., feed modifications). Comparison operators ...
How to Copy/Paste Product IDs for Promotions, Exclusions, Etc.
The video below details how to copy large sets of product identifiers (SKU, "group id", MPN, GTIN/UPC) from a spreadsheet into the VersaFeed system. This is commonly done to create Google Promotions, exclude items, or other feed modifications/optimizations that require operating on a large subset of product identifiers.
More info on determining product identifiers.
Read more Best Practices Knowledge Base Google Shopping Screencast Client Account
Determining Product Identifiers (SKU, "group id", MPN, GTIN/UPC)
The video below helps clients and agencies determine what product identifier to utilize when creating rules to modify your product data feeds. By explaining how you can determine if a code is a SKU, "group id", MPN, or GTIN/UPC the video enables users to select the appropriate product identifier when making any feed modification that is selected via a list of product codes.
Read more Best Practices Google Shopping Screencast Client Account
Data Feed Optimizations, Tuning, and General Maintenance using VersaFeed Feed Modifications
Feed modifications are a fundamental subsystem within VersaFeed. These "feed mods" allow clients, agencies, and VersaFeed account managers to use advanced logic to manipulate product data feeds in almost any conceivable fashion.
Below are some example feed mods for common tasks:
Set Set the value of a field to any number of constants and/or field values. Will completely overwrite the previous value of the field. Primarily used for appending values and setting default values ...
Don't Spend Full Daily Budget in Google Shopping
If you're a SMB, you often don't have a lot of time to figure out the optimum bids for your products. However, there is one big mistake that you do want to avoid: do NOT bid so high as to spend your entire campaign budget each day.
For example, let's say you sell guitars and you're willing to spend $100/day on Google Shopping. Let's also assume that you've ...
Read more PPC Bidding On a Budget AdWords Knowledge Base Google Shopping
Downloading a CSV Version of Your XML Feed
Please use the following method to download a CSV version of a feed that is natively in XML format.
1.Login to your VersaFeed account here:https://www.versafeed.com/clients/login/If you do not have a VersaFeed account please contact your account manager to create one.2.Click the dropdown menu "Feeds" then "Feeds & Imports"3.Find the feed you wish to download in CSV format on the page. Note that we list ...
New Feature: On Demand Product Import
The VersaFeed dashboard now allows merchants to re-scan their product inventory with the click of a button. Retailers can start this process by clicking Start New Import as seen in the screenshot below:
When starting a new product import, clients have various options:
Immediately upload new feeds after import has completedand/orEnter an email address to be notified once the import has completed
Retailers that simply need their latest inventory uploaded should check the box ...
New Feature: Timeline
Timeline enables merchants to monitor their product database over time. Using Timeline, merchants can quickly see which products, brands, and categories have been added or removed from their product catalog between two set dates.
By finding new products, brands, and categories merchants can adjust their bidding and grouping strategies in Google, Bing, and other channels. Frequently, merchants have a default bid for their entire product database, and then specific bids for more targeted items. Timeline ...
New Feature: Feed Modification Rulesets
Previously, Feed Modifications were one large list of modifications made to the feed. With Feed Modification Rulesets, clients can now create groups of feed mods for better readability and management. In addition, feed mods now come in two flavors "Freeform" or "Single Field" (further details here).
Premium and Enterprise accounts will see these new features immediately. Base packages will continue to utilize the previous version of Feed Modifications.
Ruleset Groups
Each list element in the ...
New Feature: New Feed Modification Types
Premium and Enterprise accounts now have access to two different styles of Feed Modifications: "Freeform" and "Single Field".
Freeform Mods
Freeform feed modifications are the standard, older style of feed modifications that base accounts default to. Freeform feed modifications can range from basic to highly advanced, with a large variety of modification action types available including set, find & replace, calculations, and regular expressions. With Freeform rules, clients can modify any product attribute in any feed ...
New Feature: Import/Export for Everything
Premium and Enterprise accounts will now have the ability to import/export rules for all of the VersaFeed tools interfaces, including:
Feed modifications (both individual rulesets and ruleset groups)Feed exclusion/inclusion listsFeed categorizationImport/export features utilize CSV files that can be easily modified in programs like Microsoft Excel. By working in a spreadsheet, merchants can easily modify various VersaFeed account settings in bulk.
Merchants will find upload/download links in the various VersaFeed dashboard ...
Migrating From Google Shopping Manager (GSM) to Google Shopping Campaigns (GSC)
Google has re-launched Product Listing Ads with their recently announced Google Shopping Campaigns (GSC). This article details how GSM users can migrate their existing GSM campaign to GSC and mange GSC with feed modifications moving forward.
Some important notes before we get started:
Google will sunset the current PLA architecture in late August 2014. At that point, Google will transition merchants to GSC via an automated and potentially error prone method. Users should manually switch ...
Read more PPC Bidding Google AdWords Google Shopping Client Account
VersaFeed Standard Destination Feed List
Please find the list of Standard Destinations for VersaFeed data feeds below. This document is updated regularly and no notification is provided upon update.
Standard Destinations
Google Merchant Center United StatesGoogle Merchant Center AustraliaGoogle Merchant Center BrazilGoogle Merchant Center CanadaGoogle Merchant Center Czech RepublicGoogle Merchant Center FranceGoogle Merchant Center GermanyGoogle Merchant Center IndiaGoogle Merchant Center ItalyGoogle Merchant Center JapanGoogle Merchant Center NetherlandsGoogle Merchant Center RussiaGoogle Merchant Center SpainGoogle Merchant Center SwitzerlandGoogle Merchant Center United KingdomBing ...
Sending Secure Messages to VersaFeed
Please utilize the following method to send secure messages to VersaFeed (usernames, passwords, etc.):
1.Login to your VersaFeed account here:https://www.versafeed.com/clients/login/NOTE: If you do not have a VersaFeed account please contact your account manager to create one.2.Click on the i icon in the top right hand corner3.Click "Contact Us"4.Fill out the "Request Info" form, using the "Message" section to specify any confidential information ...
Bing Product Ads Creation and Configuration
On 3/26/14 Bing announced that Product Ads (Bing's equivalent to Google Product Listing Ads) are now available to all U.S. retailers. This is great news! The steps below will guide the configuration process needed to launch. NOTE: For additional help Bing has created a 3 part video series here:
Create a Merchant Center StoreUpload Your Product CatalogCreate a Product Ads Campaign
General Login
1.Login to Bing Ads by visiting this ...
Read more PPC Bidding Bing Shopping Best Practices Knowledge Base Bing Product Ads
Google Shopping Campaigns: Overview
Google Shopping Campaigns (GSC) are a new way to list merchants' product inventory on Google Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads. The overall architecture of the system is still very similar: merchants send inventory feeds to Google, create an AdWords campaign that specifies bids/budgets, monitor results, and adjust bids/budgets as needed.
Auto targets > SubdivisionsGSC changes how you create the AdWords campaign to set bids/budgets on your items. Instead of auto targets and ...
Read more PPC Bidding PPC AdWords Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Google Shopping Manager Overview
Google Shopping Manager, or GSM, is VersaFeed's online software toolset that enables retailers to easily list their inventory on Google Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads. VersaFeed manages the technical details so merchants can make straightforward executive decisions on budgets and bidding.
Watch the screencast below of Google Shopping Manager Overview:
Watch Google Shopping Manager Overview on YouTube »
GSM consists of 3 main parts:
Data Feed CreationBid ManagementReporting & AnalysisLet's take a look at ...
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Google Shopping for Wine Merchants
Google has recently announced they will soon lift the restriction of listing alcohol (wine, spirits, beer) on Google Shopping. This screencast covers how to successfully list wine on Google Shopping and how to utilize VersaFeed's Google Shopping Manager (GSM) to achieve maximum results.
GSM enables wine merchants to segment and bid on groups of products based on wine characteristics, such as varietal, region, color, and price. Performance reports are available with tools for ROI ...
Getting Started with GSM
Your new GSM Google Shopping campaign is active and has started receiving impressions and clicks. The campaign is accumulating statistics which can be analyzed in the future with GSM to fine tune your bidding and maximize ROI. What now? We've outlined some tools and tips below on getting started with GSM...
Bid Management and Product Grouping
With GSM, bids are set at the ad group level and these groups will correlate directly with AdWords ...
Screencast: GSM Grouping & Bidding Tutorial
This in-depth tutorial discusses how to use Google Shopping Manager's (GSM) grouping and bidding tools to create real world product groupings. John steps through various scenarios using simple methods to create, refine, and optimize groups of products for Google Shopping then shows how they translate on the AdWords side to ad groups and auto targets. VersaFeed's data feed management and GSM solution enables retailers to receive SKU-level feedback and maximize ROI on Google ...
How to Link Google AdWords to Analytics
Follow the steps in the video below to link your AdWords to Analytics:
Watch on YouTube
More info: http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704341/?hl=en
How To Grant VersaFeed Google Analytics Access
1.Login to Google Analytics and click the area titled "Admin" at the top of your screen. 2.Under "Account" click "User Management". Optional: if you are an advanced user or wish to give permission at the "Property" or "View" level, you can utilize the "User Management" link in those locations instead. 3.Under "Add permission for:" enter gapi@versafeed.com. We prefer you check "Edit, Collaborate, Read & Analyze" access, but if you're an ...
How To Grant VersaFeed AdWords Access
1.Find your Google AdWords Customer ID. This can be found by logging into your Google AdWords account and looking at the top right of any page. It is a ten digit number formatted like so "Customer ID: 123-456-7890". 2.Send us your AdWords Customer ID via email, phone, secure message, or GSM signup form in the VersaFeed dashboard. 3.We will then request access to your AdWords account. This is a manual process and ...
Screencast: Feed Exclusion Manager
This screencast details how to use the Feed Exclusion Manager inside your VF client account. This tool enabled clients to remove items from any shopping engine data feed based on various product attributes. For example, you can remove all items less than $50 from your Google feed only.
Watch on YouTube »
Read more Knowledge Base Google Shopping Screencast Client Account
Screencast: Data Feeds Dashboard
Inside your VersaFeed client account is the Data Feeds dashboard. This screencast describes the features and functionality of this area, including data extractions, data feed downloads, viewing and searching data feeds, feed reports, exclusion reports, and upload times.
Watch on YouTube »
VersaFeed Source Feed/API Details
Most retailers should submit their inventory to VersaFeed utilizing the source feed format detailed below. Retailers requiring API integration can jump to the API notes below.
Important Notes
Existing file: If you have an existing feed file, please notify VersaFeed (we can very likely utilize the existing format)! This can be a tremendous time saver for merchants.Format: Submit source feeds as TSV (tab separated value) files (we may be able to accept other formats ...
Screencast: Google Shopping Manager
VersaFeed's Google Shopping Manager provides a robust set of tools to manage Product Listing Ads campaigns and maximize ROI on Google Shopping. This screencast serves as a tutorial to GSM on bidding and report analysis.
Watch on YouTube »
Screencast: Google Shopping Overview
VersaFeed explains the nuts and bolts of the new Google Shopping search engine and its integration with Google AdWords (Product Listing Ads).
Watch on YouTube »
Google Shopping "Unique Product Identifiers" Tips
Google Shopping (and other CSEs) require identification information for products so they can group similar products together. There are typically 3 distinct fields: GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), MPN (manufacturer part number), and the brand. We'll detail all 3 of these below and also discuss how you can utilize Google to find this information for some products.
GTIN (Global Trade Item Number): Most commonly either a UPC or EAN number although these can also ...
Google Product Search Transitions To Google Shopping
Google Announced on May 31st, 2012 that over the next several months they will be overhauling Google Product Search into a pay-per-click (PPC) environment, and will rebrand this product as Google Shopping. Google Shopping will rely heavily on the Google AdWords Product Listing Ad format which VersaFeed has supported for over a year (Google PLA's, Google AdWords Product Listing Ads, Product Listing Ads: Google AdWords Done Right).
Google's official announcements:http://googlecommerce.blogspot ...
Read more Google Product Search PPC Google AdWords Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Black Friday PDF Guide
Volusion.com, a VersaFeed ecommerce partner, released a great guide to surviving (and hopefully prospering!) during the "Black Friday" weekend. The PDF is available here.
Creating adCenter account for Bing Shopping
Shortly after the end of Bing's Cashback program Microsoft bundled Bing Shopping into adCenter -- Microsoft's multi-channel advertising platform. Since then, listing on Bing Shopping requires the creation of an adCenter account.
Although we would like to create this account for you, we can't. Since adCenter requires a credit card during the account setup we will need you to create your account then send us your account info. Keep in mind Bing Shopping ...
Claim Your Website in Google Merchant Center
While more than one Google Account can verify a website URL, only one account has the right to upload and publish products via Google Merchant Center for a given website. VersaFeed will be creating and uploading your data feeds to this claimed account.
Once you have verified your website URL with Google Webmaster Tools you can now claim your website in Google Merchant Center:
1.Sign into your Google Merchant Center account.2.On the ...
Verify Your Website URL with Google
In order to claim your website URL in Google Merchant Center you first need to verify your URL with Google Webmaster Tools. This is Google's way to ensure you have ownership of a website in order to use their suite of website tools like Google Merchant Center and Google Analytics.
It's relatively painless, but you do need access to your website admin area:
1.Log into Google Webmaster Tools.(Note: Make sure to ...
VersaFeed Partners with Shopify
Today VersaFeed is pleased to announce a partnership with Shopify, a leading ecommerce provider. VersaFeed works with just about every shopping platform on the market, and Shopify easily ranks among the best. So when we were approached about a possible partnership, we were very excited to get started.
VersaFeed will begin offering data feed services to Shopify clients immediately via the Shopify App Store. Shopify's ecommerce platform blends the perfect amount of high-tech and ...
Product Listing Ads: Google AdWords Done Right
Summary: How to promote your products, on a budget, using Google AdWords Advertising.
The most popular form of online advertising is, far and away, Google AdWords. It is a proven platform that, when configured properly, can drive massive traffic to your website.
The problem is, AdWords is extremely complex and professional management can cost a fortune. However, there is an elegant solution to this problem:
Google AdWords Product Listing Ads
Utilizing Product Listings Ads, you ...
Read more Google AdWords Product Extensions Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Google AdWords Product Listing Ads
What Are Product Listing Ads?
Product Listing Ads, or PLA's, are a new ad format on the Google AdWords Network. Google has been beta testing these ads for a year, and as of November 11th, 2010, are now allowing all U.S. retailers to utilize the new format. Below are two screenshots demonstrating what these new ads look like (click to enlarge):
Notice in both of these examples the ads with images in the ...
Read more Google Product Search AdWords Product Listing Ads Google Shopping
Linking Google Merchant Center with Google Checkout
Linking your Google Merchant Center (aka, Google Base or Google Product Search) account with your Google Checkout account can provide the following benefits:
Product listings in Google Product Search can appear with the Google Checkout badge.It helps establish a Google "seller rating" for your Google Merchant Center account.Product listings can be filtered in Google Product Search via "Show Only Google Checkout" links.To link the accounts:
1.Login to Google Checkout and copy ...
Recommended Comparison Shopping Engines
Our core recommendation is to maximize your product exposure on free shopping engines first. There are three of note: Google Product Search, Bing Shopping, and TheFind.
These three free shopping engines, once properly tuned, can provide a solid stream of new customers to your website with no pay-per-click fees. The only downside is that competition is fierce among the free shopping engines. Having an optimized product data feed created by VersaFeed will help ensure your ...
Top 10 Data Feed Tips & Tricks
Looking for some sure-fire methods to maximize your exposure on the shopping engines? These time-proven techniques will help ensure your success on comparison shopping engines:
1.Craft your product titles carefully. Product titles are given extreme importance on the shopping engines when matching against consumer searches. Ensure you include the brand, what the product is, and any distinguishing features. More info on product titles »2.Focus on the three free comparison shopping engines first: Google ...
Linking Google Merchant Center With Google AdWords
Google is experimenting with a variety of AdWords features that can only be enabled by linking your Google Merchant Center Account with your Google AdWords account. This gives AdWords access to your raw inventory data feeds.
If you have a professional Google AdWords management team, we recommend that you have them read this article and enable these features as they see fit.
Step-By-Step Linking Instructions
1.Log in to your Google AdWords account and write ...
Increasing Product Rank in Google Product Search
Before we can address how to increase rankings in Google Product Search, we need to examine exactly what criteria Google Product Search uses to determine product rank. Unfortunately, Google keeps most of this information secret — so much of our information is gleaned from observational experience over the years.
Google published facts
Include as much info about each product as you can. There are many product attributes that can be specified in the data feed, use ...
Read more Google Product Search Product Titles Best Practices
Writing Effective Product Titles
Carefully crafted product titles can dramatically boost your inventory's visibility on the comparison shopping engines (CSE's). It can also help with SEO. Let's dive right in with some example product titles:BAD: Golf Polo, PlaidGOOD: Tommy Hilfiger Men's Golf Polo Shirt, PlaidBAD: Red Schwinn Beach CruiserGOOD: Red Schwinn "Winwood" Beach Cruiser 3-Gear BicycleWhen consumers search for your products on shopping engines we don't know what search terms they will use ...
Goodbye Cashback, Hello Bing Shopping
On June 4th, Bing announced they were retiring the Cashback shopping program in favor of something else. It looks as if most of the dust has finally settled and we now have a fairly accurate look at where Bing Shopping will be headed:
1) It's a free shopping engine, with no pay-per-click or pay-per-action (aka CPA) fees of any kind. This is obviously going to attract a lot of new retailers to list with ...
Bidding Strategies for PPC Shopping Engines
Bidding strategies are important for PPC (pay-per-click) shopping engines. All major shopping engines (with the exception of Google Product Search and Bing Shopping) are PPC, and most allow for a variable bid. To be successful on sites like Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Amazon Product Ads, and NexTag, you must have a competent bidding strategy.
There are two important tasks to consider:
Initial bidding strategyOngoing bidding strategiesInitial Bidding Strategy
Don't list your inexpensive products.For example, it ...
Google Product Search Seller Ratings, Part 3
In previous blog entries we've looked at the importance of Google Product Search "seller ratings" and how to use Google Checkout to obtain these ratings.
This blog entry will focus on an alternative way of obtaining seller ratings utilizing ResellerRatings.com. ResellerRatings was founded in 1996 and allows consumers to review online merchants. They are generally regarded as fair to both merchants and consumers.
We are interested in ResellerRatings because Google periodically extracts merchant ...
Read more Google Product Search Seller Ratings Google Best Practices
Google Product Search Seller Ratings, Part 2
Last blog we discussed the best methods to have "seller ratings" listed next to your products on Google Product Search. We focused on two methods: using Google Checkout, and using ResellerRatings.com. This article will focus on the first option, Google Checkout.
While Google Checkout doesn't seem like a product that has anything to do with customer reviews, it actually does. Part of the Google Checkout system includes automated emails which request reviews from ...
Read more Google Product Search Seller Ratings Google Best Practices
Google Product Search Seller Ratings - Part 1
(This post has two sequel posts: Part 2 and Part 3)
While searching on Google Product Search you'll frequently notice that some merchants have a "reviews" or "seller ratings" listed next to their store (see example). These ratings are incredibly important as consumers are more willing to do business with retailers they consider trustworthy — even if the product price is not the lowest.
Google seller ratings consist of a 1 to 5 star visual ...
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